Jean-Claude Duvalier - The New York Times The New York Times Supported by Jean-Claude Duvalier News about Jean-Claude Duvalier, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. More Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, is a former dictator of Haiti . Mr. Duvalier ruled with brutality and corruption for nearly 15 years before being overthrown in 1986. He is the son of François Duvalier , known as Papa Doc, a much feared dictator of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. The younger Mr. Duvalier took power, when he was just 19, following the death of his father. In all, the Duvalier dynasty lasted about three decades and was marked by the family’s harsh repression of its opponents, with the help of a special police unit called the Tontons Macoute . Mr. Duvalier went into exile in France in 1986. In the wake of his ouster, the country turned on his security forces, slaughtering them by the dozens and even desecrating François Duvalier’s mausoleum.

His departure ushered in a period of halting democracy that has continued with tumultuous elections. Mr. Duvalier long flirted with returning, telling reporters over the years that he would like to go home. In 2007, René Préval , the former president of Haiti, said Mr. Duvalier could return but would face justice for the money the government said he had looted from the treasury, as well as for the deaths and torture of political opponents at the hands of the secret police. In January 2011, Mr. Duvalier returned to Haiti, saying he had come only to help his country, not to get involved in politics. Angry reactions poured in from around the world, with human rights groups demanding that the Haitian government charge Mr. Duvalier with crimes against humanity — including the kidnapping, torture and murder of thousands of his opponents — and with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the nation, the poorest in the hemisphere. On the streets, there were signs that Mr. Duvalier’s arrival had started a new cycle of polarization that has crippled the country for decades. Some decried Mr.

Duvalier as a vestige of one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history, while others waxed nostalgic about him as the only hope for change in Haiti. On Jan. 18, Haitian prosecutors charged Mr. Duvalier with corruption and embezzlement , and he was taken into police custody. He was released hours later, but was ordered to remain in Haiti while a judge considered whether there was sufficient evidence to send Mr. Duvalier to trial. He has faced threats of prosecution in the past for the many human rights abuses committed during his rule , and for the hundreds of millions of dollars government officials have said he looted from the country . Financial Motive? Mr. Duvalier’s risky return home from France may have been driven by another motivation: money . Though Mr. Duvalier has long been accused of looting $300 million before fleeing, his lawyers and friends have said that much of his money was squandered on a lavish lifestyle of jewelry, chateaus, fancy cars and a very expensive divorce from his ex-wife. But about $4 million still sits frozen in an account in Switzerland, and Mr. Duvalier has publicly vowed to make every effort to get it.

Haitian officials, human rights advocates and political analysts believe that Mr. Duvalier came back to the country for the sole purpose of making an end run around a new law that will make it harder for him to do that. The Duvalier Dynasty, 1957-1986 The Duvalier Dynasty 1957-1986 Like many Haitian leaders, François Duvalier produced a constitution to solidify his power. In 1961 he proceeded to violate the provisions of that constitution, which had gone into effect in 1957. He replaced the bicameral legislature with a unicameral body and decreed presidential and legislative elections. Despite a 1957 prohibition against presidential reelection, Duvalier ran for office and won with an official tally of 1,320,748 votes to zero. Not content with this sham display of democracy, he went on in 1964 to declare himself president for life. For Duvalier, the move was a matter of political tradition; seven heads of state before him had claimed the same title.

An ill-conceived coup attempt in July 1958 spurred Duvalier to act on his conviction that Haiti's independent military threatened the security of his presidency. In December the president sacked the armed forces chief of staff and replaced him with a more reliable officer. This action helped him to expand a Presidential Palace army unit into the Presidential Guard. The Guard became the elite corps of the Haitian army, and its sole purpose was to maintain Duvalier's power. After having established his own power base within the military, Duvalier dismissed the entire general staff and replaced aging Marinetrained officers with younger men who owed their positions, and presumably their loyalty, to Duvalier. Duvalier also blunted the power of the army through a rural militia formally named the Volunteers for National Security (Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale--VSN), but more commonly referred to as the tonton macoutes (derived from the Creole term for a mythological bogeyman). In 1961, only two years after Duvalier had established the group, the tonton makouts had more than twice the power of the army. Over time, the group gained even more power.

While the Presidential Guard secured Duvalier against his enemies in the capital, the tonton makouts expanded his authority into rural areas. The tonton makouts never became a true militia, but they were more than a mere secret police force. The group's pervasive influence throughout the countryside bolstered recruitment, mobilization, and patronage for the regime. After Duvalier had displaced the established military with his own security force, he employed corruption and intimidation to create his own elite. Corruption--in the form of government rake-offs of industries, bribery, extortion of domestic businesses, and stolen government funds--enriched the dictator's closest supporters. Most of these supporters held sufficient power to enable them to intimidate the members of the old elite who were gradually co-opted or eliminated (the luckier ones were allowed to emigrate). Duvalier was an astute observer of Haitian life and a student of his country's history.

Although he had been reared in Port-au-Prince, his medical experiences in the provinces had acquainted him with the everyday concerns of the people, their predisposition toward paternalistic authority (his patients referred to him as "Papa Doc," a sobriquet that he relished and often applied to himself), the ease with which their allegiance could be bought, and the central role of voodoo in their lives. Duvalier exploited all of these points, especially voodoo. He studied voodoo practices and beliefs and was rumored to be a houngan. He related effectively to houngan and bokò (voodoo sorcerers) throughout the country and incorporated many of them into his intelligence network and the ranks of the tonton makouts. His public recognition of voodoo and its practitioners and his private adherence to voodoo ritual, combined with his reputed practice of magic and sorcery, enhanced his popular persona among the common people (who hesitated to trifle with a leader who had such dark forces at his command) and served as a peculiar form of legitimization of his rapacious and ignoble rule.

Duvalier weathered a series of foreign-policy crises early in his tenure that ultimately enhanced his power and contributed to his megalomaniacal conviction that he was, in his words, the "personification of the Haitian fatherland." Duvalier's repressive and authoritarian rule seriously disturbed United States president John F. Kennedy. The Kennedy administration registered particular concern over allegations that Duvalier had blatantly misappropriated aid money and that he intended to employ a Marine Corps mission to Haiti not to train the regular army but to strengthen the tonton makouts. Washington acted on these charges and suspended aid in mid-1962. Duvalier refused to accept United States demands for strict accounting procedures as a precondition of aid renewal. Duvalier, claiming to be motivated by nationalism, renounced all aid from Washington. At that time, aid from the United States constituted a substantial portion of the Haitian national budget. The move had little direct impact on the Haitian people because most of the aid had been siphoned off by Duvalierist cronies anyway. Renouncing the aid, however, allowed the incipient dictator to portray himself as a principled and lonely opponent of domination by a great power.

Duvalier continued to receive multilateral contributions. After Kennedy's death in November 1963, pressure on Duvalier eased, and the United States adopted a policy of grudging acceptance of the Haitian regime because of the country's strategic location near communist Cuba. A more tense and confrontational situation developed in April 1963 between Duvalier and Dominican Republic president Juan Bosch Gaviño. Duvalier and Bosch were confirmed adversaries; the Dominican president provided asylum and direct support to Haitian exiles who plotted against the Duvalier regime. Duvalier ordered the Presidential Guard to occupy the Dominican chancery in Pétionville in an effort to apprehend an army officer believed to have been involved in an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap the dictator's son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, and daughter, Simone Duvalier. The Dominican Republic reacted with outrage and indignation. Bosch publicly threatened to invade Haiti, and he ordered army units to the frontier. Although observers throughout the world anticipated military action that would lead to Duvalier's downfall, they saw events turn in the Haitian tyrant's favor.

Dominican military commanders, who found Bosch's political leanings too far to the left, expressed little support for an invasion of Haiti. Bosch, because he could not count on his military, decided to let go of his dream to overthrow the neighboring dictatorship. Instead, he allowed the matter to be settled by emissaries of the Organization of American States (OAS). Resistant to both domestic and foreign challenges, Duvalier entrenched his rule through terror (an estimated 30,000 Haitians were killed for political reasons during his tenure), emigration (which removed the more activist elements of the population along with thousands of purely economic migrants), and limited patronage. At the time of his death in 1971, François Duvalier designated his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, as Haiti's new leader. To the Haitian elite, who still dominated the economy, the continuation of Duvalierism without "Papa Doc" offered financial gain and a possibility for recapturing some of the political influence lost under the dictatorship. The first few years after Jean-Claude Duvalier's installation as Haiti's ninth president-for-life were a largely uneventful extension of his father's rule.

Jean-Claude was a feckless, dissolute nineteen-year-old, who had been raised in an extremely isolated environment and who had never expressed any interest in politics or Haitian affairs. He initially resented the dynastic arrangement that had made him Haiti's leader, and he was content to leave substantive and administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovid Duvalier, while he attended ceremonial functions and lived as a playboy. By neglecting his role in government, Jean-Claude squandered a considerable amount of domestic and foreign goodwill and facilitated the dominance of Haitian affairs by a clique of hard- line Duvalierist cronies who later became known as the dinosaurs. The public displayed more affection toward Jean-Claude than they had displayed for his more formidable father. Foreign officials and observers also seemed more tolerant toward "Baby Doc," in areas such as human-rights monitoring, and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The United States restored its aid program for Haiti in 1971. Jean-Claude limited his interest in government to various fraudulent schemes and to outright misappropriations of funds.

Much of the Duvaliers' wealth, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, came from the Régie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration). Duvalier used this "nonfiscal account," established decades earlier under Estimé, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept. Jean-Claude's kleptocracy, along with his failure to back with actions his rhetoric endorsing economic and public-health reform, left the regime vulnerable to unanticipated crises that were exacerbated by endemic poverty, including the African Swine Fever (ASF) epidemic and the widely publicized outbreak of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the 1980s. A highly contagious and fatal disease, ASF plagued pigs in the Dominican Republic in mid-1978. The United States feared that the disease would spread to North America and pressured Jean-Claude to slaughter the entire population of Haitian pigs and to replace them with animals supplied by the United States and international agencies.

The Haitian government complied with this demand, but it failed to take note of the rancor that this policy produced among the peasantry. Black Haitian pigs were not only a form of "savings account" for peasants because they could be sold for cash when necessary, but they were also a breed of livestock well-suited to the rural environment because they required neither special care nor special feed. The replacement pigs required both. Peasants deeply resented this intrusion into their lives (see Livestock and Fishing , ch. 8). Initial reporting on the AIDS outbreak in Haiti implied that the country might have been a source for the human immune deficiency virus. This rumor, which turned out to be false, hurt the nation's tourism industry, which had grown during Jean-Claude Duvalier's tenure. Already minimal, public services deteriorated as Jean- Claude and his ruling clique continued to misappropriate funds from the national treasury. Jean-Claude miscalculated the ramifications of his May 1980 wedding to Michèle Bennett, a mulatto divorcée with a disreputable background.

(François Duvalier had jailed her father, Ernest Bennett, for bad debts and other shady financial dealings.) Although Jean-Claude himself was light-skinned, his father's legacy of support for the black middle class and antipathy toward the established mulatto elite had enhanced the appeal of Duvalierism among the black majority of the population. By marrying a mulatto, Jean-Claude appeared to be abandoning the informal bond that his father had labored to establish. The marriage also estranged the old-line Duvalierists in the government from the younger technocrats whom Jean-Claude had appointed. The Duvalierists' spiritual leader, Jean-Claude's mother, Simone, was eventually expelled from Haiti, reportedly at the request of Michèle, Jean-Claude's wife. The extravagance of the couple's wedding, which cost an estimated US$3 million, further alienated the people. Popular discontent intensified in response to increased corruption among the Duvaliers and the Bennetts, as well as the repulsive nature of the Bennetts' dealings, which included selling Haitian cadavers to foreign medical schools and trafficking in narcotics. Increased political repression added to the volatility of the situation.

By the mid-1980s, most Haitians felt hopeless, as economic conditions worsened and hunger and malnutrition spread. Widespread discontent began in March 1983, when Pope John Paul II visited Haiti. The pontiff declared that "Something must change here." He went on to call for a more equitable distribution of income, a more egalitarian social structure, more concern among the elite for the well-being of the masses, and increased popular participation in public life. This message revitalized both laymen and clergy, and it contributed to increased popular mobilization and to expanded political and social activism. A revolt began in the provinces two years later. The city of Gonaïves was the first to have street demonstrations and raids on food-distribution warehouses. From October 1985 to January 1986, the protests spread to six other cities, including Cap Haïtien. By the end of that month, Haitians in the south had revolted. The most significant rioting there broke out in Les Cayes.

Jean-Claude responded with a 10 percent cut in staple food prices, the closing of independent radio stations, a cabinet reshuffle, and a crackdown by police and army units, but these moves failed to dampen the momentumof the popular uprising against the dynastic dictatorship. Jean-Claude's wife and advisers, intent on maintaining their profitable grip on power, urged him to put down the rebellion and to remain in office. A plot to remove him had been well under way, however, long before the demonstrations began. The conspirators' efforts were not connected to the popular revolt, but violence in the streets prompted Jean-Claude's opponents to act. The leaders of the plot were Lieutenant General Henri Namphy and Colonel Williams Regala. Both had privately expressed misgivings about the excesses of the regime. They and other officers saw the armed forces as the single remaining cohesive institution in the country. They viewed the army as the only vehicle for an orderly transition from Duvalierism to another form of government. In January 1986, the unrest in Haiti alarmed United States president Ronald Reagan. The Reagan administration began to pressure Duvalier to renounce his rule and to leave Haiti.

Representatives appointed by Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga served as intermediaries who carried out the negotiations. The United States rejected a request to provide asylum for Duvalier, but offered to assist with the dictator's departure. Duvalier had initially accepted on January 30, 1986. The White House actually announced his departure prematurely. At the last minute, however, Jean-Claude decided to remain in Haiti. His decision provoked increased violence in the streets. The United States Department of State announced a cutback in aid to Haiti on January 31. This action had both symbolic and real effect: it distanced Washington from the Duvalier regime, and it denied the regime a significant source of income. By this time, the rioting had spread to Port-au-Prince. At this point, the military conspirators took direct action. Namphy, Regala, and others confronted the Duvaliers and demanded their departure. Left with no bases of support, Jean-Claude consented.

After hastily naming a National Council of Government (Conseil National de Gouvernement--CNG) made up of Namphy, Regala, and three civilians, Jean-Claude and Michèle Duvalier departed from Haiti on February 7, 1986. They left behind them a country economically ravaged by their avarice, a country bereft of functional political institutions and devoid of any tradition of peaceful self-rule. Although the end of the Duvalier era provoked much popular rejoicing, the transitional period initiated under the CNG did not lead to any significant improvement in the lives of most Haitians. Although most citizens expressed a desire for democracy, they had no firm grasp of what the word meant or of how it might be achieved. *** The English-language historiography for Haiti is fairly rich and diverse. The two leading comprehensive works are David Nicholls's From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour, and National Independence in Haiti and Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492-1971 by Robert Debs Heinl and Nancy Gordon Heinl.

Nicholls's book goes into greater depth with regard to Haiti's sociocultural history, whereas the Heinls' volume is a more straightforward account, full of fascinating and useful detail. Another worthwhile general work is Robert Rotberg's Haiti: The Politics of Squalor. Rayford Logan's Haiti and the Dominican Republic examines Haiti's history in the larger context of European and United States competition in the Western Hemisphere. The period of the United States occupation is chronicled effectively in Hans Schmidt's The United States Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934. Bernard Diederich and Al Burt's Papa Doc: The Truth About Haiti Today provides a riveting, although somewhat anecdotal, chronicle of François Duvalier's rule. In a similar vein, Elizabeth Abbott's Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy gives the reader a feel for the behind-the-scenes workings of the dynastic dictatorship.

Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier dies - NY Daily News 'Baby Doc' dead: Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier dies of heart attack Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier dies THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ex-Haitian dictator Jean-Claude-Duvalier died Saturday from a heart attack. He married Michele Bennett in May 1980. (AP) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Saturday, October 4, 2014, 12:57 PM PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Jean-Claude-Duvalier, the self-proclaimed "president for life" of Haiti whose corrupt and brutal regime sparked a popular uprising that sent him into a 25-year exile, died Saturday of a heart attack, his attorney said. Reynold George said the ex-leader died at his home. He was 63. Duvalier, looking somewhat frail, made a surprise return to Haiti in 2011, allowing victims of his regime to pursue legal claims against him and prompting some old allies to rally around him.

Neither side gained much support, and the once-feared dictator known as "Baby Doc" spent his late years in relative obscurity in the leafy hills above the Haitian capital. Duvalier was the son of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a medical doctor-turned-dictator who promoted "Noirisme," a movement that sought to highlight Haiti's African roots over its European ones while uniting the black majority against a mulatto elite in a country divided by class and color. The regimes of both leaders tortured and killed political opponents and relied on a dreaded civilian militia known as the Tonton Macoutes. In 1971, Francois Duvalier suddenly died of an illness and named his son to succeed him. At 19, Jean-Claude Duvalier became the world's youngest president. Known as 'Baby Doc,' Duvalier was exiled from the country after a popular uprising brought down his brutal regime.

(HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images) The son was regarded as a lackluster student at a prestigious private Catholic school in the capital but his teachers gave him passing grades anyway to avoid fury from the National Palace, according to "Written in Blood" a history of the country by Robert Debs Heinl and Nancy Gordon Heinl. Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled for 15 years, his administration seen as less violent and repressive than his father's. Echoes of press freedom and personal criticism, never tolerated under his father, emerged — sporadically — because of international pressure. Still, human rights groups documented abuses and political persecution. A trio of prisons known as the "Triangle of Death," which included the much-feared Fort Dimanche for long-term inmates, symbolized the brutality of his regime. As president, he married the daughter of a wealthy coffee merchant, Michele Bennett, in 1980. The engagement caused a scandal among old Duvalierists, for she was a mulatto and the arrangement ran counter to the Noirisme movement Duvalier's father espoused. The wedding was a lavish affair, complete with imported champagne, flowers and fireworks.

The ceremony, reported to have cost $5 million, was carried live on television to the impoverished nation. After they exchanged vows, Michele ordered her tubby husband to go on a diet. Under Duvalier's rule, Haiti saw widespread demographic changes. Peasants moved to the capital in search of work as factories popped up to meet the growing demand for cheap labor. Thousands of professionals fled a climate of repression for cities such as New York, Miami and Montreal. And aid began to flow from the United States and agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In 2011, Duvalier (center) returned to Haiti and allowed victims of his regime to pursue legal claims against him. (Ramon Espinosa) The tourists followed, some in search of a form of tropical hedonism that included booze, prostitution and Voodoo ceremonies for which the country became legendary. Tourism collapsed in the early 1980s after Florida doctors noted that an unusual number of AIDS cases were coming from Haitian emigres, even though the disease was believed to have been brought from the U.S. But it was corruption and human rights abuses that defined Duvalier rule.

The National Palace became known for opulent parties as Michele took overseas shopping sprees to decorate and collect fur coats. Duvalier relished taking his presidential yacht out for a spin and racing about in sports cars. Under mounting pressure from the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Duvalier made pretenses of improving the country's human rights record by releasing political prisoners. Still, journalists and activists were jailed or exiled. Haitians without visas or money left by boarding flimsy boats in a desperate effort to reach Florida shores. The New York-based Human Rights Watch estimated that up to 30,000 Haitians were killed, many by execution, under the regime of the two Duvaliers. Barbara Walters talks with exiled Leader Jean Claude Duvalier Haiti in June 1986. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) As Haiti's living conditions deteriorated, Pope John-Paul II made a visit in 1983 and famously declared: "Things must change." Three years later, they did. A popular uprising swept across Haiti, and Duvalier and his wife boarded a U.S.-government C-141 for France. The couple divorced in 1993.

Duvalier later became involved with Veronique Roy, who accompanied him on his 2011 return to Haiti. While in exile in France, Duvalier was never known to hold a job. He occasionally made public statements about his eagerness to return to Haiti. Supporters periodically marched on his behalf in the Haitian capital. On Jan. 16, 2011, Duvalier made his surprise return. He said he wanted to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, whose capital and outlying cities were heavily damaged in a magnitude-7.0 earthquake the year before. But many suspected he came back in an effort to reclaim money he had allegedly stashed. Others said he merely wanted to die in his homeland. Duvalier supporters hold a picture of him, right, and one of his father, Francois Duvalier, known as 'Papa Doc,' in Port-au-Prince in 2013. (Dieu Nalio Chery/AP) More than 20 victims of his rule stepped forward to file charges that ranged from false imprisonment to torture.

Human Rights Watch issued a report saying that Duvalier may not have directly participated in the torture and killings under his regime, but that there was enough evidence to prosecute him. Despite the occasional stay in the hospital, Duvalier seemed to enjoy his new life back home and was free to roam the capital. He was spotted attending government ceremonies, dining with friends in several high-end restaurants and avoided jail time. In 2013 he began renovating an old house that Roy said had been destroyed in the wake of his 1986 ouster. The efforts to prosecute him stumbled along. Duvalier stunned human rights observers and alleged victims of his regime in 2013 when he testified about his rule before an investigating judge. A year later, a judge overturned an earlier court decision and ruled that Duvalier could face crimes against humanity charges. But in the end the case stalled because officials did little to move it along. Duvalier and his wife Michele had two children, son Francois Nicolas "Nico" Duvalier and a daughter, Anya.

Join the Conversation: Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier dead at 63 | Fox News Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier dead at 63 Published October 04, 2014 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 livefyre Email Print FILE 2013: Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as 'Baby Doc' attends his hearing at court in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (AP) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Jean-Claude-Duvalier, the self-proclaimed "president for life" of Haiti whose corrupt and brutal regime sparked a popular uprising that sent him into a 25-year exile, died Saturday of a heart attack, his attorney said. Reynold George said the 63-year-old ex-leader died at his home. Duvalier, looking somewhat frail, made a surprise return to Haiti in 2011 , allowing victims of his regime to pursue legal claims against him and prompting some old allies to rally around him.

Neither side gained much support, and the once-feared dictator known as "Baby Doc" spent his late years in relative obscurity in the leafy hills above the Haitian capital. Duvalier was the son of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a medical doctor-turned-dictator who promoted "Noirisme," a movement that sought to highlight Haiti's African roots over its European ones while uniting the black majority against a mulatto elite in a country divided by class and color. The regimes of both leaders tortured and killed political opponents and relied on a dreaded civilian militia known as the Tonton Macoutes. In 1971, Francois Duvalier suddenly died of an illness and named his son to succeed him. At 19, Jean-Claude Duvalier became the world's youngest president. The son was regarded as a lackluster student at a prestigious private Catholic school in the capital but his teachers gave him passing grades anyway to avoid fury from the National Palace, according to "Written in Blood" a history of the country by Robert Debs Heinl and Nancy Gordon Heinl.

Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled for 15 years, his administration seen as less violent and repressive than his father's. Echoes of press freedom and personal criticism, never tolerated under his father, emerged -- sporadically -- because of international pressure. Still, human rights groups documented abuses and political persecution. A trio of prisons known as the "Triangle of Death," which included the much-feared Fort Dimanche for long-term inmates, symbolized the brutality of his regime. As president, he married the daughter of a wealthy coffee merchant, Michele Bennett, in 1980. The engagement caused a scandal among old Duvalierists, for she was a mulatto and the arrangement ran counter to the Noirisme movement Duvalier's father espoused. The wedding was a lavish affair, complete with imported champagne, flowers and fireworks. The ceremony, reported to have cost $5 million, was carried live on television to the impoverished nation. After they exchanged vows, Michele ordered her tubby husband to go on a diet. Under Duvalier's rule, Haiti saw widespread demographic changes. Peasants moved to the capital in search of work as factories popped up to meet the growing demand for cheap labor.

Thousands of professionals fled a climate of repression for cities such as New York, Miami and Montreal. And aid began to flow from the United States and agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The tourists followed, some in search of a form of tropical hedonism that included booze, prostitution and Voodoo ceremonies for which the country became legendary. Tourism collapsed in the early 1980s after Florida doctors noted that an unusual number of AIDS cases were coming from Haitian emigres, even though the disease was believed to have been brought from the U.S. But it was corruption and human rights abuses that defined Duvalier rule. The National Palace became known for opulent parties as Michele took overseas shopping sprees to decorate and collect fur coats. Duvalier relished taking his presidential yacht out for a spin and racing about in sports cars. Under mounting pressure from the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Duvalier made pretenses of improving the country's human rights record by releasing political prisoners. Still, journalists and activists were jailed or exiled. Haitians without visas or money left by boarding flimsy boats in a desperate effort to reach Florida shores.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch estimated that up to 30,000 Haitians were killed, many by execution, under the regime of the two Duvaliers. As Haiti's living conditions deteriorated, Pope John-Paul II made a visit in 1983 and famously declared: "Things must change." Three years later, they did. A popular uprising swept across Haiti, and Duvalier and his wife boarded a U.S.-government C-141 for France. The couple divorced in 1993. Duvalier later became involved with Veronique Roy, who accompanied him on his 2011 return to Haiti. While in exile in France, Duvalier was never known to hold a job. He occasionally made public statements about his eagerness to return to Haiti. Supporters periodically marched on his behalf in the Haitian capital. On Jan. 16, 2011, Duvalier made his surprise return. He said he wanted to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, whose capital and outlying cities were heavily damaged in a magnitude-7.0 earthquake the year before. But many suspected he came back in an effort to reclaim money he had allegedly stashed.

Others said he merely wanted to die in his homeland. More than 20 victims of his rule stepped forward to file charges that ranged from false imprisonment to torture. Human Rights Watch issued a report saying that Duvalier may not have directly participated in the torture and killings under his regime, but that there was enough evidence to prosecute him. Despite the occasional stay in the hospital, Duvalier seemed to enjoy his new life back home and was free to roam the capital. He was spotted attending government ceremonies, dining with friends in several high-end restaurants and avoided jail time. In 2013 he began renovating an old house that Roy said had been destroyed in the wake of his 1986 ouster. The efforts to prosecute him stumbled along. Duvalier stunned human rights observers and alleged victims of his regime in 2013 when he testified about his rule before an investigating judge. A year later, a judge overturned an earlier court decision and ruled that Duvalier could face crimes against humanity charges. But in the end the case stalled because officials did little to move it along. Duvalier and his wife Michele had two children, son Francois Nicolas "Nico" Duvalier and a daughter, Anya.

Advertisement Factbox: Ex-dictator Baby Doc makes surprise return to Haiti | Reuters Sun Jan 16, 2011 | 9:26 PM EST Factbox: Ex-dictator "Baby Doc" makes surprise return to Haiti Exiled former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier returned unexpectedly to his Caribbean homeland on Sunday for the first time since he was driven from power by a popular uprising in 1986. It was not immediately clear why he returned. But Duvalier is back in Haiti as the impoverished country grapples with a disputed presidential election and a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,750 people. Here are some facts about Duvalier: * Duvalier, 59, is popularly known as "Baby Doc" and is the son of Haiti's former authoritarian leader Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. He took power after his father's death in 1971, becoming one of the world's youngest heads-of-state at age 19.

* "Baby Doc" Duvalier ruled Haiti with an iron fist for 15 years, calling himself "president-for-life" before fleeing the country after an outbreak of popular protests. He lived in exile in France before his surprise return to Haiti. * Together, the Duvaliers ruled Haiti for 28 years, using a sinister secret police force known as the Tonton Macoutes whose members wore dark sunglasses and carried pistols to suppress opposition. Critics accused the Duvaliers of living lavishly and doing little to alleviate poverty in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. * More than 100,000 Haitians fled the country under the younger Duvalier, many of them escaping on barely seaworthy rafts to seek asylum in the United States. * Facing demonstrations that saw hundreds of thousands of Haitians take to the streets, Duvalier abandoned the presidency under pressure from the United States, handing over power to a six-man military and civilian commission in Haiti.

(Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Philip Barbara) ADVERTISEMENT Caribbean Elections Biography | Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier (3 July 1951 - 4 October 2014) Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Jean-Claude Duvalier (nicknamed “Bébé Doc” or “Baby Doc”) (3 July 1951 - 4 October 2014) was the ruler of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He had called himself "president-for-life" and ruled with an iron fist, aided by a brutal private militia known as the Tontons Macoutes. He succeeded his father, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti upon his father’s death in 1971. Early life and education He was born on 3 July 1951 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was raised in an isolated environment. His father was Francois Duvalier, President of Haiti and his mother was Simone (Ovide) Duvalier. He attended College Bird and Saint-Louis de Gonzague.

Later, under the direction of several professors, including Maitre Gerard Gourgue, at the University of Haiti, he studied law. During April 1971, he assumed the presidency of Haiti at the age of 19 upon the death of his father, François Duvalier (nicknamed “Papa Doc”), becoming the world’s youngest president. Initially, Jean-Claude Duvalier resisted the dynastic arrangement that had made him Haiti’s leader, having preferred that the presidency go to his older sister Marie-Denise Duvalier, and was content to leave substantive and administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, and a committee led by Luckner Cambronne, his father’s Interior Minister, while he attended ceremonial functions and lived as a playboy. Political and economic factors Duvalier was invested with near-absolute power by the constitution. He took some steps to reform the regime, by releasing some political prisoners and easing press censorship. However, there were no substantive changes to the regime’s basic character. Opposition was not tolerated, and the legislature remained a rubber stamp. Much of the Duvaliers’ wealth came from the Régie du Tabac (Tobacco Administration).

Duvalier used this “nonfiscal account”, established decades earlier, as a tobacco monopoly, but he later expanded it to include the proceeds from other government enterprises and used it as a slush fund for which no balance sheets were ever kept. By neglecting his role in government, Duvalier squandered considerable domestic and foreign goodwill and facilitated the dominance of Haitian affairs by a clique of hardline Duvalierist cronies, the so-called “dinosaurs”. Foreign officials and observers also seemed more tolerant toward “Baby Doc” in areas such as human rights monitoring, and foreign countries were more generous to him with economic assistance. The Nixon administration restored the US aid program for Haiti in 1971. Marriage Jean-Claude miscalculated the ramifications of his 27 May 1980 wedding to Michèle Bennett Pasquet, a mulatto divorcée with an unsavory reputation. Her first husband, Alix Pasquet, was the son of a well-known mulatto officer who had led an attempt to overthrow Papa Doc Duvalier.

Although Jean-Claude himself was light-skinned, his father’s legacy of support for the black middle class and antipathy toward the mulatto elite had enhanced the appeal of Duvalierism among the black majority of the population. With his marriage, Jean-Claude appeared to be abandoning the informal bond that his father had labored to establish. The extravagance of the couple’s wedding, which cost an estimated $3 million, further alienated the people. Discontent among the business community and elite intensified in response to increased corruption among the Duvaliers and the Bennetts, as well as the repulsive nature of the Bennetts’ dealings, which included selling Haitian cadavers to foreign medical schools and trafficking in narcotics. Increased political repression added to the volatility of the situation. The marriage also estranged the old-line Duvalierists in the government from the younger technocrats whom Jean-Claude had appointed, including Jean-Marie Chanoine, Fritz Merceron, Frantz-Robert Monde, and Theo Achille. The Duvalierists’ spiritual leader, Jean-Claude’s mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, was eventually expelled from Haiti, reportedly at the request of Michèle Duvalier.

With his wife Duvalier had two children, François Nicolas (born 31 January 1983) and Anya (born 1986). Destabilisation In response to an outbreak of African swine fever virus on the island in 1978, U.S. agricultural authorities insisted upon total eradication of Haiti’s pig population. The Program for the Eradication of Porcine Swine Fever and for the Development of Pig Raising (PEPPADEP) caused widespread hardship among the peasant population, who bred pigs as an investment. In addition, reports that AIDS was becoming a major problem in Haiti caused tourism to Haiti to decline dramatically in the early 1980s. By the mid-1980s, most Haitians felt hopeless, as economic conditions worsened and hunger and malnutrition spread. Widespread discontent began in March 1983, when Pope John Paul II visited Haiti. The pontiff declared that “Something must change here.” He went on to call for a more equitable distribution of income, a more egalitarian social structure, more concern among the elite for the well-being of the masses, and increased popular participation in public life.

This message revitalized both laymen and clergy, and it contributed to increased popular mobilization and to expanded political and social activism. In 1984 Ernest Preeg, U.S. ambassador to Haiti (1981–1983) wrote a monograph on Haiti’s part in the Reagan Caribbean Basin Initiative. One paragraph stated…”It can honestly be said that the Jean-Claude Duvalier presidency is the longest period of violence-free stability in the nation’s history.” A revolt began in the provinces in 1985. The city of Gonaïves was the first to have street demonstrations and raids on food-distribution warehouses. From October 1985 to January 1986, the protests spread to six other cities, including Cap Haïtien. By the end of that month, Haitians in the south had revolted. The most significant rioting there broke out in Les Cayes. Jean-Claude responded with a 10 percent cut in staple food prices, the closing of independent radio stations, a cabinet reshuffle, and a crackdown by police and army units, but these moves failed to dampen the momentum of the popular uprising against the dynastic dictatorship.

Jean-Claude’s wife and advisers, intent on maintaining their grip on power, urged him to put down the rebellion and remain in office. In January 1986, the Reagan administration began to pressure Duvalier to renounce his rule and to leave Haiti. Representatives appointed by Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga served as intermediaries who carried out the negotiations. At this point a number of Duvalierists, and business leaders, met with the Duvaliers and pressed for their departure. The United States rejected a request to provide asylum for Duvalier, but offered to assist with the Duvaliers’ departure. Duvalier had initially accepted on 30 January 1986 and President Reagan actually announced his departure, based on a report from the Haitian CIA Station Chief who saw Duvalier’s car head for the airport. En route, there was gunfire and Duvalier’s party returned to the palace unnoticed by the U.S. intelligence team. Duvalier declared “we are as firm as a monkey tail.” He departed on 7 February 1986, flying to France in an U.S. Air Force aircraft. Exile The Duvaliers settled in France.

For a time they lived a luxurious life. Although he formally applied for political asylum, his request was denied by French authorities. Jean-Claude lost most of his wealth with his 1993 divorce from Michèle. While apparently living modestly in exile, Duvalier does have supporters, who founded the Francois Duvalier Foundation in 2006 to promote positive aspects of the Duvalier presidency, including the creation of most of Haiti’s state institutions and improved access to education for the country’s black majority. A private citizen, Jacques Samyn, unsuccessfully sued to expel Duvalier as an illegal immigrant (the Duvaliers were never officially granted asylum in France). Then, in 1998, a Haitian-born photographer, Gerard Bloncourt, formed a committee in Paris to bring Duvalier to trial. At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior said that it could not verify whether Duvalier still remained in the country due to the recently enacted Schengen Agreement which had abolished systematic border controls between the participating countries. However, Duvalier’s lawyer Sauveur Vaisse said that his client was still in France and denied that the exiled leader had fallen on hard times.

Following the ousting of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004, Duvalier announced his intention to return to Haiti. In 2004, he announced his intentions to run for president of Haiti in the 2006 elections for the Party of National Unity; however, he did not become a candidate. On 22 - 23 September 2007, an address by Duvalier to Haitians was broadcast by radio. Although he said exile had “broken” him, he also said that what he described as the improving fortunes of the National Unity Party had “reinvigorated” him, and he urged readiness among his supporters, without saying whether he intended to return to Haiti.President René Préval rejected Duvalier’s apology and, on September 28, he said that while Duvalier was constitutionally free to return to Haiti, he would face trial if he did so. Return to Haiti On 16 January 2011, a quarter-century after he fled Haiti as a deposed dictator, Duvalier did make a surprise return.

His passport had expired so he travelled to Haiti using temporary documentation issued by Haiti's Consulate General in Paris. The frail-looking Baby Doc said that he was not there for politics, but because he wanted to “help.” Banking experts, however, suspected that he had arrived to circumvent new Swiss regulations preventing exiled leaders from obtaining money stolen from their countries. He was promptly arrested and charged with embezzlement and other crimes, but remained living in a high-end hotel in the mountains of Port-au-Prince. A Haitian court ruled in February 2014 that Duvalier could be charged with crimes against humanity under international law, and that he could also be held responsible for abuses committed by the army and paramilitary forces under his rule. Duvlier consistently denied any responsibility for abuses committed while he was in office. Death Jean-Claude Duvalier died in his home of a heart attack on Saturday, 4 October 2014. He was 63.

Sources Exiled Haitian Dictator, ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, Returns Home - The New York Times The New York Times Americas |A Former Dictator Reappears in Haiti Search Continue reading the main story Photo Jean-Claude Duvalier, the former Haitian leader known as ‘Baby Doc’, at the Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince on Sunday night. Credit Allison Shelley/Getty Images MEXICO CITY — Haiti ’s political crisis took a stunning turn on Sunday when Jean-Claude Duvalier , the dictator known as Baby Doc who was overthrown in 1986, arrived unexpectedly in the capital from exile in France. Haitian television and radio stations reported that Mr. Duvalier, dressed in a blue suit, landed shortly after 6 p.m. in Port-au-Prince on an Air France flight and told reporters that he had simply come to help Haiti, moved by images of the first anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the country. The Associated Press reported that he would give a news conference on Monday and that he planned to stay in the country for three days. The sudden appearance of Mr.

Duvalier, 59, who ruled Haiti with brutality and corruption for nearly 15 years, threatened to further convulse a country struggling to recover from the earthquake and a lingering cholera epidemic. Photo Jean-Claude Duvalier, center, the former Haitian president, arrived Sunday at the Port-au-Prince airport. He did not detail his plans to reporters. Credit Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press The Haitian government had no immediate comment. In 2007, President René Préval said Mr. Duvalier could return but would face justice for the money the government said he had looted from the treasury, as well as for the deaths and torture of political opponents at the hands of the secret police. Still, Mr. Duvalier has long flirted with returning, telling reporters over the years that he would like to go home. His nickname derives from his being the son of François Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, a much feared dictator in the 1950s and ’60s.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story Jean-Claude Duvalier’s departure from Haiti 25 years ago, which was arranged with the assistance of the United States, ushered in a period of halting democracy that has continued with tumultuous elections. On Sunday, the American ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth H. Merten, embraced an international report rejecting the results of the presidential election in November, adding pressure on Haitian officials to reconsider the outcome. Photo Mr. Duvalier giving a speech in Port-au-Prince in 1976. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Merten said in a telephone interview before word of Mr. Duvalier’s arrival that the report “makes sense.” He urged Haitian officials to accept its findings, including the conclusion that one candidate may have been denied a rightful spot in a runoff. The report, delivered Thursday to Mr. Préval and prepared by a multinational team of experts convened by the Organization of American States, confirmed Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady, as the leader in the first round of voting in November. She did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff, though. But the report said, based on a statistical analysis of ballot sheets, that Mr.

Préval’s choice as his successor, Jude Célestin, had placed third, not second, as announced when the initial results were released in early December. Instead, the panel said Michel Martelly, a popular singer, had won second place and qualified to face Ms. Manigat in the second round of balloting. Mr. Préval has not commented on the report, but his aides have been privately telling reporters that he is dissatisfied and questions its methodology. With the leadership of the country and billions of dollars of disaster relief in the balance, José Miguel Insulza, the O.A.S. secretary general, plans to visit Haiti Monday to consult with officials. A version of this article appears in print on January 17, 2011, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Ex-Haitian Dictator’s Return Threatens to Add to Turmoil.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier dies from heart attack at home near Port-au-Prince | Daily Mail Online Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier dies from heart attack at home near Port-au-Prince Jean-Claude was the son of Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc He was 19 when he 'inherited' impoverished nation from his despotic father Baby Doc continued the oppressive regime, executing political opponents He fled to Paris in 1986 following accusations of corruption and torture In 2011 he returned to the country to the outcry of human rights groups comments Dictator: Duvalier, who ruled Haiti with brutality and corruption for nearly 15 years, died today of a heart attack at his home near Port-au-Prince Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, the country's self-proclaimed 'president for life', died today of a heart attack. Duvalier ruled the impoverished Caribbean country with brutality and corruption for nearly 15 years before being overthrown in 1986, when he went into exile in France.

His attorney Reynold George said the 63-year-old former leader died at his home in the hills above Port-au-Prince. He had lived in the country since 2011, when he returned declaring that he would help in the reconstruction of Haiti - whose cities were heavily damaged in an earthquake the year before. Jean-Claude was the son of Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, a medical doctor-turned-dictator who ruled the country from 1957 to 1971. Papa Doc promoted 'Noirisme', a movement that sought to highlight Haiti's African roots over its European ones while uniting the black majority against a mulatto elite in a country divided by class and colour. Baby Doc was a 19-year-old chubby playboy when he ‘inherited’ the country - one of the world's poorest - from his despotic father after he died suddenly of an illness in 1971. Francois Duvalier practised voodoo and used his sinister secret civilian militia - the machete-wielding Tonton Macoute - to murder thousands and terrorise the population. His son continued the oppressive regime and hundreds of political opponents were either executed or simply disappeared.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch estimated that up to 30,000 Haitians were killed, many by execution, under the regime of the two Duvaliers, which lasted nearly three decades. But there were some improvements for the people of Haiti under the younger Duvalier. Echoes of press freedom and personal criticism, never tolerated under his father, emerged - sporadically - because of international pressure. Still, human rights groups documented abuses and political persecution. A trio of prisons known as the 'Triangle of Death', which included the much-feared Fort Dimanche for long-term inmates, symbolized the brutality of his regime. As president, he married the daughter of a wealthy coffee merchant, Michele Bennett, in 1980. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share The wedding was a lavish affair, complete with imported champagne, flowers and fireworks. The ceremony, reported to have cost $5 million, was carried live on television to the impoverished nation. Duvalier and his wife Michele had two children, son Francois Nicolas 'Nico' Duvalier and a daughter, Anya. Under Duvalier's rule, Haiti saw widespread demographic changes.

Peasants moved to the capital in search of work as factories popped up to meet the growing demand for cheap labor. Thousands of professionals fled a climate of repression for cities such as New York, Miami and Montreal. Lavish: As president, Duvalier married the daughter of a wealth coffee merchant, Michele Bennett, in 1980. Their ceremony, reported to have cost $5million, was carried on live television to the impoverished nation And aid began to flow from the United States and agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The tourists followed, some in search of a form of tropical hedonism that included booze, prostitution and Voodoo ceremonies for which the country became legendary. Tourism collapsed in the early 1980s after Florida doctors noted that an unusual number of AIDS cases were coming from Haitian emigres, even though the disease was believed to have been brought from the U.S. But it was corruption and human rights abuses that defined Duvalier rule. Young leader: Baby Doc, pictured left in 1980, was a 19-year-old playboy when he ‘inherited’ the country from his despotic father after he died suddenly in 1971.

He kept order with a brutal secretive police The National Palace became known for opulent parties as Michele took overseas shopping sprees to decorate and collect fur coats. Duvalier relished taking his presidential yacht out for a spin and racing about in sports cars. Under mounting pressure from the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Duvalier made pretenses of improving the country's human rights record by releasing political prisoners. Still, journalists and activists were jailed or exiled. Haitians without visas or money left by boarding flimsy boats in a desperate effort to reach Florida shores. Corrupt: As Haiti's living conditions deteriorated under the rule of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Pope John-Paul II made a visit in 1983 and famously declared: 'Things must change'. Above, Duvalier, his wife and the Pope As Haiti's living conditions deteriorated, Pope John-Paul II made a visit in 1983 and famously declared: 'Things must change'. Three years later, they did.

Facing accusations of corruption, torture and other human rights abuses, Duvalier fled to Paris in 1986 following mass protests, the desertion of the Tonton Macoute and pressure from the U.S. The couple divorced in 1993. Duvalier later became involved with Veronique Roy, who accompanied him on his 2011 return to Haiti. In the wake of the younger Duvalier's ousting, the country turned on his security forces, slaughtering them by the thousands. Opulent: The National Palace became known for opulent parties as Michele took overseas shopping sprees to decorate and collect fur coats. Duvalier, pictured, elished taking his presidential yacht out for a spin His departure ushered in a period of halting democracy that has continued with tumultuous elections. While in exile in France, Mr Duvalier spoke often about returning to Haiti, telling reporters over the years that he wanted to return to the Caribbean country. Supporters periodically marched on his behalf in the Haitian capital.

In 2007 Rene Preval, Haiti’s former president, said Duvalier could return to the country to face justice for the deaths of thousands and the theft of millions of dollars, supposedly hidden in Swiss bank accounts. Four years later, a somewhat frail-looking Mr Duvalier returned to the country, declaring that he had returned to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, whose capital and outlying cities were heavily damaged in a magnitude-7.0 earthquake the year before. Return: In 2011, a somewhat frail-looking Mr Duvalier returned to the country, declaring that he had returned to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, whose capital and outlying cities were heavily damaged in an earthquake But many suspected he came back in an effort to reclaim money he had allegedly stashed. Others said he merely wanted to die in his homeland. The move was met with widespread anger. Human rights groups demanded his arrest - demanding the Haitian government charge him with crimes against humanity and for stealing millions of dollars from the nation. More than 20 victims of his rule stepped forward to file charges that ranged from false imprisonment to torture.

Human Rights Watch issued a report saying that Duvalier may not have directly participated in the torture and killings under his regime, but that there was enough evidence to prosecute him. Under fire: In February 2013, following his return to Haiti in 2011, Jean-Claude appeared in court for a hearing to determine if he could be charged with crimes against humanity. He testified about his rule in front of a judge But there were also those who heralded his return, seeing him as the only man who could solve their current problems. Old political allies rallied around him. As he touched down in Port-au-Prince, around 200 supporters were there to greet his arrival on January 16. Despite the occasional stay in the hospital, Duvalier seemed to enjoy his new life back home and was free to roam the capital. He was spotted attending government ceremonies, dining with friends in several high-end restaurants and avoided jail time. In 2013 he began renovating an old house that Roy said had been destroyed in the wake of his 1986 ouster.

Low-key: The once-feared leader spent his final years in relative obscurity, living in the leafy hills above the Haitian capital. Above, Duvalier attends the funeral of former Haitian President Leslie Manigat in July The efforts to prosecute him stumbled along. Duvalier stunned human rights observers and alleged victims of his regime in 2013 when he testified about his rule before an investigating judge. A year later, a judge overturned an earlier court decision and ruled that Duvalier could face crimes against humanity charges. But in the end the case stalled because officials did little to move it along. The once-feared leader spent his final years in relative obscurity, living in the leafy hills above the Haitian capital. Jean-Claude Duvalier facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Jean-Claude Duvalier COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. Jean-Claude Duvalier Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier (born 1951) succeeded his father, François (Papa Doc) Duvalier, as president-for-life of Haiti in 1971.

He ruled with less of his father's repression but was deposed February 7, 1986. Living in exile in France, he grew increasingly destitute, having mismanaged much of the wealth he allegedly took out of Haiti. Born in July 1951, Jean-Claude Duvalier became president of Haiti at age 19, when his father, the feared and hated Dr. François (Papa Doc) Duvalier died suddenly in April of 1971. The elder Duvalier, who rose to power in the late 1950s, had proclaimed himself president-for-life in 1964 and declared his eldest son heir apparent in 1969. "Baby Doc" Duvalier, as he came to be known, was educated entirely in Haiti. He visited Europe as a teenager, but was reportedly more interested in the continent's hedonist diversions than its other treasures. On the eve of his ascendance to the presidency, visiting journalists described him as a buffoon; his school-days nickname, "Baskethead," had followed him into adulthood. Within a year of the younger Duvalier's accession to power Haiti experienced a marked decrease in political tension.

Guided by his mother and several aides of his late father, the young president relied somewhat less than his predecessor on a reign of terror backed by Haiti's brutal secret police, the Tonton Macoutes. He also permitted limited press freedom and personal criticisms that were never tolerated by Papa Doc. A Desperately Poor Nation The younger Duvalier also moved closer to the United States, from whom his father had been estranged since 1961. Aid from the United States and from multilateral agencies began again. But there was no real attention, as many had hoped there would be, to the real ills of Haiti, long the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and the most ravaged by its rulers. The new President Duvalier—a pampered, portly playboy with a penchant for fast sports cars—had hardly been trained to succeed his enigmatic, ruthless father. Haiti had a per-capita income of $150 a year, literacy rates which hovered between five and ten percent of the population, infant mortality rates as high as 50 percent, a life expectancy of only 53 years, shrinking yields of coffee (the country's only cash crop), and a continued prevalence of tuberculosis.

Moreover, Haiti's limited arable land area was shrinking dramatically every year due to deforestation, overgrazing, and violent erosion. Nevertheless, Duvalier's first years in office offered hope. Soon more than 150 U.S. concerns were operating in Haiti, including a small chain of Holiday Inns. The sewing of baseballs, long a staple of low-wage Haiti, was expanded. New electronic assembly plants were developed. Another of the new businesses exported blood plasma, collected from the poor of Haiti's mean streets for $3 a quart, to the United States. For nearly two years, Hemo Caribbean made $5 a quart on sales of 4,000 quarts a month to hospitals and blood banks in the United States. Political Instability During the early years of the elder Duvalier presidency, exiled Haitians—some supported clandestinely by the United States—invaded their homeland in attempts to oust him, but all were repulsed. In late 1978 Baby Doc Duvalier's government was also threatened by an invasion in the northeast, at Cape St. Nicholas. Several dozen exiles came ashore from small boats. They proved no match for the Haitian army.

A second invasion took place in 1982, when a small group of exiles led by a Miami garage owner landed on Tortuga, a small island off Haiti's northwest coast All of those who landed were imprisoned and shot. A political crackdown on dissidents followed as a result of these two attempted coups. Senior United Nations officials complained about the all-pervasive atmosphere of family corruption. Caribbean political analysts asserted that Haiti's tobacco monopoly, among other enterprises, continued to be used as a family slush fund. The renewed authoritarianism deterred tourism and curtailed aid levels. Island Spiraled into Crisis When President Duvalier shortly thereafter permitted the formation of two opposition parties and publicly inaugurated a period of "liberalization," the United States and long-time opponents took cheer. The tame press was allowed to publish critical articles. By late 1979, however, the honeymoon was over. Men armed with clubs broke up Haiti's first human rights rally in Port-au-Prince. Diplomats were beaten, and hundreds were hurt. The press was again curbed. In 1980 Silvio Claude, founder of the Haitian Christian Democratic Party, was arrested and held incommunicado for two years.

Gregoire Eugene, another party leader, and a number of journalists were subsequently arrested and flown out of Haiti on exit visas. By mid-1981 Duvalier's new policies had transformed middle-class—and comparatively limited—migration of Haitians to the nearby United States into a wholesale exodus of impoverished peasants and landless laborers. In roughly made wooden sailboats, in rusty island freighters, in scows and anything that would float, 4,000 refugees a month began leaving Cap Haitien and Port de Paix secretly under the guidance of profiteering shippers for economic and political opportunity as refugees in Florida. New Palace Power In 1980 the president had married Michèle Bennett, the American-educated daughter of a well-to-do Haitian coffee merchant. At a cost of $3 million, the ceremony and festivities garnered infamy for its entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive wedding ever held. The same year a son, François-Nicholas, was born, Michèle Duvalier outmaneuvered her mother-in-law in 1983 and became First Lady of Haiti.

By then it had become clear that the new first lady was the power behind, next to, and perhaps in front of the throne. She began making executive decisions whenever her husband was otherwise engaged driving racing cars or cruising in his presidential yacht. In the 1984 election to Haiti's 59-seat National Assembly, no opposition candidates were permitted to contest the election. The only plausible leaders of contrary parties were specifically excluded. Gregoire Eugene, who had earlier been exiled to New York, was prevented from returning. Silvio Claude was again arrested and tortured. Sixty of his followers were also arrested or exiled. So few Haitians voted that the government refused to reveal the turnout. The few meetings called to protest the elections were broken up by thugs. Duvalier confined his own electioneering to throwing money from the window of his speeding car. Denied political and most other freedoms and condemned to flee their country or remain illiterate, ill-housed, ill-fed, and prone to disease, Haitians were also condemned to renewed cycles of underdevelopment.

The tourist industry was destroyed by the association of AIDS with Haiti, and the farmers in 1985 were producing only 50 percent of the coffee grown in the 1960s. The roads were still rough and limited, electricity supplies haphazard, and arbitrary official taxation and corruption remained ingrained. Kicked Out of Own Country In the first days of February 1986 a series of riots broke out across Haiti. This time the government's usual harsh repressive measures only worsened the massive unrest. Fearing for his life, Duvalier fled to France in a U.S. cargo plane with his family and 17 associates. France granted temporary asylum, but then asked the Duvalier party to find another place of refuge; yet no other country would accept them. After a short period of democratic rule, a junta took over the government of Haiti; elections were held in late 1990 and a former priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was elected. A military coup ousted him after only a few months in office, and only an economic blockade helped see him reinstated in 1993.

Meanwhile, a very small group still loyal to Duvalier continued to agitate for his return. Duvalier has said he would be happy to return to Haiti, but it would certainly require heavy security. Scenes of the frightened Duvaliers behind the windshield of their luxury German automobile as they arrived at the airport to flee the country in 1986 became one of the lasting images of the coup. It was said that Duvalier was reportedly worth $120 million, much of it looted from Haiti's resources in one way or another. Shortly after the arrival of the Duvaliers and their entourage on the French Riviera, the U.S. government froze the former leader's American-held assets, which included a yacht in Miami, a condominium in New York's posh Trump Tower, and three other Manhattan abodes. In the south of France Duvalier and his family lived quite comfortably, and he and Michèle Duvalier continued to spend freely—supposedly with money stored in secret Swiss accounts. On one trip to Paris, they bought nearly a half-million dollars worth of jewelry. The Duvalier fortune took a turn for the worse, however, after the couple's 1990 divorce.

With his ex-wife in Paris with their two children (a daughter, Anya, arrived three years after François-Nicholas), Duvalier moved to another Cote D'Azur villa in 1990. His new rented home in Vallauris cost $9,000 a month, but legal actions taken by the current Haitian government to freeze his international assets in an attempt to recover some of the monies plundered were successful, and effectively impoverished Duvalier. By 1994 France Telecom disconnected his phone until its $14,000 balance was paid, and he was evicted from his villa for unpaid rent. He reportedly lives in a much smaller house in Vallauris, drives a humble Opel, and shares his home with his aged mother and five dogs. Further Reading The three books useful for the regime of the Duvaliers are Graham Greene, The Comedians (London, 1966), a novel which mirrored life in Haiti under the first Duvalier; Robert I. Rotberg, Haiti: The Politics of Squalor (1971); and David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier (1979).

A post-coup analysis is found in Elizabeth Abbott, The Woeful Dynasty: The Duvaliers and their Legacy (1991). Updates on Duvalier's exile status appeared in People (August 22, 1994) and the Economist (October 22, 1994). □ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Jean-Claude Duvalier (zhäN-klōd düvälyā´), 1951–2014, president of Haiti (1971–86). At age 19, he was proclaimed "president for life" upon the death of his father, Francois Duvalier . Under great pressure from the United States to moderate the corrupt and dictatorial regime of his father, he made a show of introducing reforms, replacing some of his father's cabinet ministers, and freeing a number of political prisoners. For a time, he managed to improve Haiti's international image, although substantively his rule did not markedly differ from his father's often brutal tyranny.

Known as "Baby Doc," he was strongly influenced by his mother, Simone Duvalier, and by his young wife, Michele Bennet, whom he married in 1980. In 1986, antigovernment demonstrations toppled Duvalier's regime; he fled into exile in France. In 2011, he returned to Haiti and was soon charged with having engaged in corruption and embezzlement during his presidency, but his death ended the case against him. Cite this article

Question: How was Jean Claude Duvalier known before he ws exiled in 1986?
Answer: Baby Doc